Not-So-Religious Manifestations

We made Christmas shaped pancakes for breakfast this morning.
As I proudly set our 'fun' breakfast on the table, I told the boys they had to identify the shape before they could eat their pancakes.
Jared took the lead, for which I was grateful...at first.

"Look, I got Santa's butt when he leans over to put the presents under the tree!"

Um, No. That was supposed to be a manger. See the rectangle with the crossed legs? No? I guess it does look kinda like a bum and boots. Well, the rest of them looked exactly like the things they were...I think.

Christmas Cookies

While the big boys played Monopoly behind closed doors on Thursday, Sam helped me make the Sugar Cookies. We made all kinds of Santas, Snowmen, trains, candy canes, and snowflakes. Once they were baked, they looked more like cookies from the Island of Misfit Toys!

Yay for Snow!

We woke up to a lot of snow this morning.
We need sleds. Wait - ours cracked, can we get new ones?
And gloves. Where's my gloves?
Why can't I just wear the snow pants that are in the washing machine? I don't care if they're dry!

So much for cleaning the pig sty!

So much for sewing last minute gifts!

So much for starting the baking!



Sam is so excited about snow! He didn't mind the bundling up, either. Maybe that had to do with getting to open an early Christmas present - his new winter coat from Grandma Gigi!


The big boys headed down to The Pit (the irrigation basin thingy around the corner)


Sam and Josh spent the morning sledding. Josh & I built up a nice platform for the sled so Sam could crawl on without it taking off.

a song, a visit, and a lesson

Cam started piano again at the beginning of December. He found Jingle Bells in one of his books last week and figured it all out by himself. I was really proud of him! (His message is meant for a dvd we were making for his Great Grandma, Gigi)


We also visited Santa last weekend. It was our first (and last) time seeing him at South Towne Mall. They only allow their photographers to take pictures which means I have to pay them. Why should I pay them when I have my own camera? So, I chose not to follow the rules and went upstairs to get a picture. Well, as karma would have it, my pictures didn't turn out that great and now it looks as if the computer ate them all anyways! This is the only one I have as proof that we went. Moral of the story : Follow the Rules! And make back-up copies of your pictures!

Jingle Jam

The kids have a Christmas concert every year and each grade sings two songs. This year, they choose to perform on Thursday right in the middle of my preschool time. ( I don't know why no one asked my opinion on days...)

Anyways, I showed Jared how to film with the camera and sent him off the make a masterpiece of Josh's very first Jingle Jam. To my surprise, when I looked at the pictures he took, he had filmed all three of the boys singing so I wouldn't miss anything! Here they are for your viewing pleasure!






Josh, Sam, and I went to the afternoon concert and Josh took some awesome pictures. He's a budding photographer!

*There's a good one of Sam and I
*Cameron and his friend, Jordan
*yeah, um...his tushy as taken by him
*his face as taken by him
*tushies of the two guys in front of us
*some kids we don't know
*the airplane and dragon that kept Sam entertained
*Josh's leg and shoe
and
*a guy behind us that Josh was sure had said a
bad word because he was covering his mouth

Stockings, finally!

A few years ago, I made stockings for Jared and I and our, then, two boys. Since then, we've added two more boys and it seems no one wants to use the pink-ish stocking that was once Mom's. I told them it was more of a fuschia, but still, no takers.
So, last year we changed up the color scheme on our Christmas tree a little (And by we, I mean me. Me changed it, me only one that notices any difference. The beauty of having all boys!) The stockings didn't really match anymore. I wanted to make new ones so my mom offered to take the old ones off my hands. I didn't get the new ones done, so she let us use them one last time before taking them back to Louisiana with her.
Fast forward to this year. We put up the tree. We put out the decorations. Jared hung the lights. But, where in the world are the stockings? Oh hecky! Someone needs to get sewing! So here they are - this year's new stockings, hung a week before Christmas so Josh can relax. Whew! The boys got to pick there own fabric...well, they got to pick their own out of the four fabrics I brought home anyways. My favorite part has to be the giant rick rack. i need to find more projects that call for that stuff!

Catch-Up

You know it's Christmastime when you're having so much fun there's no time to blog it all. You really know it's Christmastime when your one faithful reader, Mom, doesn't nag you about the blog because she doesn't have time to read it, either!
Here's a quick run down of the last month's highlights:

We celebrated Josh!

He had his 6th birthday on November 21st!
He's getting so big (and tall, too).
He's lost his first tooth.
He loves kindergarten and friends and reading and recess, but not homework or jobs.
He's still crazy about Hot Wheels.
He makes my day every morning when he yells, "Love you, Mom" as he heads for his classroom.

We celebrated his birthday by taking a bunch of his friends to the new jumpy place in town, Monkey Island. I realized that we do too many theme parties when I asked what kind of cake he wanted and he said a 'monkey cake' for fear that any other kind of cake would mix the Monkey Island jumpy place idea.



We celebrated Thanksgiving.
It was a small one, just us and Abby & Manda, but it was so relaxed and worth it. We planned to eat at one but actually ate at three. The rest of the day was spent preparing for Black Friday which started at 11PM at WalMart for us this year. Never been there for the Midnight Buzzer, but it was an exciting adventure!

We celebrated Abby's birthday with velour suits and a Libby-made Swamp People cake.

We celebrated Straight A report cards at Incredible Pizza. Along with being cute and witty, my boys are smart, too.

Do you think Jared would go for Bunk Beds?

I've been thinking about bunk beds. It may be the way to go with Sam & Josh. "Hey!", I thought, "We (mostly Jared) can make that." So, I started looking for plans/tutorials.
I found this :

I want this one for my room. We could put a king size mattress in there, right? And the top bunk could be for scrapbooking and sewing!

There are a lot of castles, but a few of the non-castle beds included this space shuttle.

I'm guessing these kids have pretty big bedrooms to fit bunk beds, a slide and a staircase. I think my kids would sleep outside if they had to if they could get a bed like this!

You should go check the site out. It's called Tanglewood Design. They have other furniture and cabinets on their site, too. But, really, who cares about that stuff?!?

A friend posted about a giveaway on a friend's blog today. She's giving away 4th row Jazz tickets!! The blog is called Pedaling Fast & Trying to Keep Up. The things I've read so far are really interesting and FREE Jazz tickets could never hurt!

A Star is Born!

Tonight was Opening Night for Cam's play. He has been practicing at the Lehi Council of Arts since mid-September to be part of Dear Edwina Junior. The play is about a girl, Edwina, who gives advice to children that write letters to her stating their problems.
Cam plays Lars, a boy that falls and breaks his ankle in the first few minutes. Later, he does the ad libbing for the Frankenguest song. He also played the 'steel drums' for a song and sang back-up as a pig.


This is the Frankenguest song. It's the answer to a letter written to Edwina asking what to do about a party guest with very bad manners.

I won't forget, Shelby!

Do you love this movie like I do?
Do you remember this scene?

Remember how she cooked the turkey and he was so excited and drool-y and then the neighbor's dogs ran in and ate it?

Shelby thought it would be fun to re-enact it for me today.
I cooked a roast with cumin and chilies all day. We had it for dinner and the boys were excited and drool-y.
Especially my biggest boy. He likes his roasts.
Then, clean-up time came and there was enough for tomorrow's dinner.
More excitement!
Until Shelby hopped up on the island and finished it off.
All of it.
I don't like her.
I really don't.
Not at all.
Can you say Sausage Factory?

Sam's Halloween Goods

Since this is the first Halloween that Sam actually knew what was going on, we had to get a picture of his candy. He made it all teh way down our street and around the corner a couple of houses before calling it quits. He couldn't have been happier with all of his candy.

Halloween Costumes

One of the blogs I like to look at is called Sew, Momma, Sew .After all of these costumes, boy, do I feel like I deserve to wear her title for at least a week! I either helped make or made nine costumes this year! There were 2 princesses, one fairy tale heroine, one Disney bad guy, one meat product, one fatality, one UFO, one animal rescuer, and one cave woman.

My nieces wanted to be Princess Tiana and Charlotte LeBouef from Princess and the Frog. Since they are the closest things I have to girls, they pretty much get what they order from me!

My sister, Abby, wanted to be Little Red Riding Hood and needed help with her costume. By "help", she meant she needed someone to take the bed skirt she found at DI and turn it into a skirt! Her roommate, Cindy, is a school teacher and so she fittingly wanted to be Cruella DeVille. I helped with her coat which I think makes it available to all family members!

Jake decided to be bacon. As I heard on the radio the other day, bacon will be his 'first love until his first love comes along'! Cam was going to be King Kong coming out of the top of the Empire State Building, but opted for Man Being Eaten by Shark once he realized you'd be able to see his feet under the King Kong suit. Please don't tell him you can see his feet in this costume!

Josh wanted to be an alien but gave up on it when I would let him wear a mask. We were on our way to the fabric store to get a dragon pattern and fabric when we stopped in the Halloween store next door. I must've done something good that day because right there was an alien costume for only $10! We took an inch off the mask and turned it into a hat and Voila! he was an alien. Perfect except for the mom-guilt that creeped in because his was the only non-homemade costume. So, we made a flying saucer out of cardboard, newspaper, an emergency blanket, and glitter. Now I felt better. This was also Josh's first year to be in the much coveted school Halloween Parade. He was so cute and he beamed through the cafeteria!

And, Sam. Sam, Sam, Sam. Sam wanted to be a fireman, a monster, a policeman, Dora, a monkey, Diego, pretty much anything he heard someone else was going to be. Even a princess at one point, but don't tell Jared. We settled on Diego and made a vest and hair, but I don't think he ever wore the whole costume all together! The best picture of him is the one above with Josh. For Trick-or-treating, it got cold and rainy so he wore a monster suit from the dress up box that Jake wore for Halloween about five years ago. He immediately got into character by chasing Manda around the front yard and growling at her. In this picture, he's wearing the box that his Halloween Potato Head came in for a hat. Lucky kid gets to go to the store alone with mom now that everyone else is in school and it usually works in his favor!

Tamales

I've wanted to try making tamales for a long time.
I was intimidated.
I tried it tonight.
They were good!
Very good if you ask those at the table that know where their dinner comes from!

When I was little, I told my parents I wanted to be a Mexican when I grew up because I loved Mexican food so much. I think I'm one step closer tonight.

Josh lost his first tooth!!

Josh's 'big' tooth has been growing in behind his baby tooth for a couple of weeks now. When I first saw it, I asked if the baby tooth was loose. He didn't know! So, we've been wiggling it for a few days now. Wednesday night we sent him to bed and told him to keep wiggling. About five minutes later, he came running down stairs with a giant smile on his face and his tooth in his hand.

In the middle of the excitement, we took a picture. Look how tiny that tooth is!We put it in a baggie until I could get his tooth pillow ready.
I hurriedly sewed his tooth fairy pillow together and ran it back up to his room, but I was too late. There was no chance of waking him up and I didn't dare leave an eyeless tooth next to his pillow for him to wake up to! (I was out of hand-sewing needles to sew on the button eyes.) Lucky for us, the Tooth Fairy leaves a dollar even if your tooth is just in a baggie!

(And, even luckier for us, if Mom is so busy sewing said pillow that she forgets to put the dollar under your pillow, Dad can quickly do it in the morning and when you wake up and catch him, you might just believe that he was 'just checking to see if she really came'!)

One Day Closer to the Sausage Factory...

Shelby has been making bad choices.
Too bad for her, she's a dog and there are no laws that say I have to put up with her.
Yesterday was bad.
Bad choices everywhere.
Bad, bad, bad.
Shelby wrapped her leash around a bar stool, pulled it over and busted the leg.
Shelby hid my shoe in her yet-to-be-found secret stash spot when I needed to take Cam to Scouts.
Shelby looked me right in the eye and went potty on my preschool rug after I stood outside with her for 20 minutes waiting for her to do her bizness.
Then, for the Grand Finale, Shelby made me angry!

We had a neighborhood party last night.
The boys helped me make a fun dessert.
We were running five minutes late, but I dashed upstairs to brush my hair.
I was fast. Lickety-split fast.
When I came back to the kitchen, I saw someone had licked the frosting off our dessert.
MANDA!!! Did you lick my frosting??
Wasn't her.
Wasn't me.
Wasn't Josh.
Sam was asleep.
Everyone else was gone.
SHELBY!!!
Stupid, stupid, dog. I swear you're gonna end up at the sausage factory!

Evidence Exhibit A

Evidence Exhibit B

Fall Break 'Projects'

I've been blog-surfing a lot lately and have realized that like a 15 year old girl, I fall in love very easily. Except, I'm falling in love with things to sew, things to paint, things to glue, etc. Funny that the more things I find to make, the less time I have to make them!
Over the mini-vacation from school, I enlisted some help from the boys and we marked a few Halloween things off my list. They are great helpers when it comes to making icky, scary stuff!

FYI: these are not crafts. I live in a house full of boys and we do not craft. We do projects.

Bubbling Cauldron

Here's the beginning of our cauldron. We just used our Dutch Oven because we didn't have a cauldron and I'm too cheap to buy one!

Josh and Jake did most of the painting. I found out Cam doesn't really like to paint and Sam likes it too much!

Halloween Wreath

Again, I'm cheap and refused to pay $10 for a hideous wreath at WalMart. So, our adventure began with looking for a cheap wreath. On the way to DI, I stopped at Big Lots. Ugly wreaths on clearance for $3.50! Score! We dipped the ping pong ball in glitter and made our cool eyeballs.

Halloween Bats

We found these bats at Crafter's Corner. It's a place in American Fork that sells lots of pre-cut metal for crafts, but also some unfinished wood projects in the back. The boys loved painting the bats and I finished them with some paper, glitter, and tulle.

Halloween Bouquet

Cam and I made this little bouquet for a friend that needed a smile. It probably could've used more chocolates, but, umm...we like chocolate and there were only so many in the bag!